Abstract

Let us problematise and interrogate the word ‘ New ’. In 1974 Frank Crowley edited A New History of Australia . It was chronologically arranged from 1788 to 1972 with twelve chapters, each by a different author using the latest research at that time, but apart from a fine chapter on the 1914 18 war by Ian Turner it was not methodologically new. In 1981 Tom Stannage edited A New History of Western Australia, also multi-authored but departing from chronological sequence in favour of a more thematic approach. In this New Zealand volume Giselle Byrnes has taken the Stannage approach further, with mixed consequences. On the plus side, we have an anthology of essays ably summarising and interpreting the themes that have energised New Zealand historians during the last two decades: race relations, the family, sexuality, religion, sport and leisure, health and welfare. On the minus side there are gaps…